Daily Life and Tribulations
by Shadow Oblivion
Summary: The Man in the Moon found that he liked to watch the people of Earth, though his attention was drawn on a regular basis to the Guardians and Pitch. Sometimes he just couldn't understand how the other beings got themselves mixed up in some of the situations they encountered. -unrelated humorous one-shots for those that don't care to read angst/horror-
1. Butterfly

As much as I like writing horror/angst, I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, so I'm posting this unrelated group of one-shots, because I like writing humor and making people laugh too. Or making ridiculously sweet fluffy stories, like this particular chapter. I'm going to endeavor to keep things IC as much as is humanly possible.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the_ Rise of the Guardians _movie or any related material.

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Summary: Pitch steps out of his comfort zone when he finds himself in an odd predicament

Genre: Humor (the situation, mainly) and Hurt/Comfort (with a little melancholy)

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Pitch Black was out of this lair, prowling around a neighborhood. He was in a rather vindictive mood that night, and was therefore itching to instill some fear in a few children. Though the sting of defeat was still unpleasant in the way that it reminded him of his drop in power, the Nightmare King was feeling good that night. Things were slowly starting to change. Over the past few months, he had been causing little pockets of fear here and there, though not so much that it would attract the Guardians' attention. These small amounts of fear had given Pitch enough power that he had been able to get the Nightmares back under his control.

With that newly regained power, Pitch was finally going to be able to cause some effective nightmares, and he knew the perfect place to start that night. A little revenge on Jack Frost, as it were. Pitch was going to give Jamie a terrifying nightmare, and then make himself scarce. Who knew how close an eye Jack kept on Jamie. After all, the boy was the first child to believe in Jack and see him. Revenge was sweet, but the Nightmare King wasn't about to confront Jack directly. Pitch needed more time to regain his strength and have more power to draw on if he ever wanted to be able to face any of the Guardians again on equal footing.

Mind made up, Pitch stepped through a shadow, and emerged into Jamie's bedroom, a dark smile hovering about his lips in anticipation of causing fear. Only…there was no one there. The boy wasn't in bed. Pitch glanced at the clock. 12:45 AM. The Nightmare King scowled in disappointment. Foiled again. Perhaps Jamie was out of town or something inconvenient like that.

Of course nothing was going to go his way. Why had he expected anything to be different? Pitch was about to leave the house to search the town for the wayward boy, when he heard a thumping sound from another room. Pitch hesitated, before melding into the shadows and entering the room where the sound had originated from. Pitch kept to the darkness of the room as he took the scene in silently.

Jamie's sister, Sophie, had apparently fallen out of bed, as she was on the ground and crying. Pitch's thought of trying to frighten her in Jamie's place vanished as soon as her teary eyes rose to meet his. Pitch stiffened when Sophie stood up and hurried over in his direction. He was fully expecting her to run through him to go seek comfort from her mother, and he braced himself for being run through. It was a peculiar sensation that he absolutely loathed. Instead of passing through Pitch, however, Sophie bumped into one of his legs and clung to it tightly.

Pitch stilled further, first in shock that she could see him, and second, for feeling the tears steadily soaking through the fabric. Pitch forced himself to relax. There was nothing for him to fear from this girl's tears. Pitch's lips quirked in twisted amusement at the very thought that tears would have any effect on him, physical or otherwise.

Pitch glanced around the room suspiciously, like he was fully expecting the Guardians to come swooping in to the rescue and accuse him of frightening the girl and making her cry. Ordinarily, the tears wouldn't have bothered him, but as he hadn't been the one to cause the tears, Pitch didn't want to take credit for something he hadn't even done.

After a few moments of silence, Pitch looked down at the blond haired girl, and spoke in a low, soothing tone, "Little girls should be asleep and dreaming." Oh, it nearly made him cringe, trying to be sympathetic to a child. It was nauseatingly sweet, and Pitch dreaded what he had seemingly gotten himself in to.

Sophie twitched a little at being addressed, but the smooth voice caused her to lift her tear stained face to look up shyly at Pitch. She was slightly intimidated by the tall man, but upon hearing his words, Sophie shook her head wordlessly and buried her face against the Nightmare King's leg again.

Pitch withheld a sigh, and stared up at the ceiling, trying to be patient. Finally, he lowered himself to Sophie's level, with slight difficulty due to her clinging.

Sophie, noticing the movement, peeked up at Pitch again with watery green eyes locking onto golden ones.

The sight stirred some emotions within Pitch that he hadn't bothered with in countless years. Compassion. Empathy. Pitch very nearly sneered at the idea of those emotions. It was very unpleasant, and Pitch didn't like it one bit. He wanted to be gone from this unfortunate situation, as quickly as possible. But how, without taking the girl with him and upsetting her further?

Pitch formed a small Nightmare on the palm of his hand with black sand. He hoped it would distract Sophie so that he could free his leg and escape. Children liked animals, didn't they?

The small, orange eyed Nightmare had the opposite effect Pitch had been expecting. A small sob escaped Sophie as a small surge of fear ran through her, and Sophie turned her face against Pitch's leg to avoid the sight. A small horse made of sand that had formed out of nowhere had scared her.

Well…that hadn't worked liked he had thought it would. Pitch dismissed his next thought of trying to shake her off his leg. He didn't want to cause any physical harm to a child. It was distasteful and beneath him to do such a thing. Scaring children psychologically drew forth much more satisfying fear. Sophie's soft, continued crying was beginning to concern him, and Pitch didn't want to be feeling that either. The gray skinned man let the Nightmare prance out the window into the night. Time to try something else. It was outside his comfort zone, and with a little trepidation, Pitch reached out a hand toward Sophie.

Light as a feather, Pitch awkwardly patted Sophie on the head in a poor attempt to reassure her. That he wasn't going to frighten her, at least not tonight. Oh, the Guardians would have loved to see this. Pitch wouldn't be able to show his face for years if they caught him trying to comfort a sobbing child. When the crying had tapered off a bit from the sensation of the gentle pats to the child's head, Pitch realized that Sophie was looking up at him again. Pitch tried to give her an encouraging smile, but it ended up a grimace, like it was physically taxing to try and be nice. So, he spoke softly instead, "You don't want your mother to catch you out of bed, do you?" Pitch shifted uncomfortably under the steady green gaze. As a last ditch attempt to get her to let go of him already, Pitch formed a few butterflies out of the black sand with a light wave of his hand.

Sophie instantly let go of Pitch's leg as she turned toward the butterflies, a happy laugh escaping her lips as she reached for them, "Pretty!"

When Sophie had turned, Pitch quickly rose, scooping the girl up as he did. Pitch plopped her back down on her bed, acting as if his hands would have burned if he had held her any longer.

Sophie's attention had been drawn from the butterflies to Pitch. She might have started to cry again at the realization that a strange man had been in her bedroom, and that she had been clinging to one of his legs in an attempt to seek comfort. The reason she had woken up was that she was still upset that Jamie was off at summer camp, and that it made her lonely. Falling out of bed had been unintentional. Sophie glanced up at Pitch, and broke into a smile at the sight of a larger sand butterfly fluttering around his head.

Pitch didn't like how Sophie was smiling at him now. Like he wasn't a scary, creepy person for being in her bedroom. He was the Nightmare King. The Boogeyman. Children were supposed to be afraid of him and be intimidated by his presence. Not…not…beaming at him like he was a wonderful person for making such unfrightening butterflies! Frustrated with himself and unable to stand the smiling he was receiving from Sophie, Pitch waved a hand and summoned up more sand butterflies. Pitch made his leave through a shadow when Sophie's attention was drawn to the butterflies once more.

The sand butterflies vanished soon after, but Sophie had cheered up marginally, and was feeling sleepy again. Jamie would be back soon, and they could play together again. Yawning, Sophie snuggled back down in bed beneath the sheets, clinging to a stuffed animal. Her eyes scanned the shadows of her room for any sign of Pitch. Seeing nothing, she spoke two words, "Bye, bye." Maybe Pitch would stop by again tomorrow night and make more of those butterflies.

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Had Sophie looked out her bedroom window, she would have seen a tall, dark figure on the top of a nearby house.

Pitch stood impassively as he watched Sophie drift off, an indecipherable expression on his face, before he finally turned away. He wasn't in the mood anymore to scare anyone that night. The Nightmare King glanced up at the black sand butterfly fluttering about his head, and one of his hands drifted down to slip into a pocket, gripping the cool metal of a locket loosely. A flash of longing and anguish crossed Pitch's face, before it settled into a mask of resignation. His hand withdrew from the pocket to drop at his side.

Pitch turned and headed for the shadow of a chimney, thoughts passing through his mind of times long ago. He needed to leave, now, before any more unwanted emotions welled within him. Pitch reappeared in his lair after slipping through the shadow. The feelings still lingered, and the Nightmare King slumped against a nearby pillar, in an attempt to clear his mind.

Pitch's gaze rose to just a few inches above his head, to where the sand butterfly was still fluttering about. The anguished look crossed his face once more, and he reached one long fingered hand to brush it away, along with the memories it had brought forth. Pitch's hand stopped short of the fluttering insect, and he let his hand fall back down limply.

The black sand butterfly continued to circle overhead, and Pitch couldn't find it in himself to send it away.

X-x-x

So a bit of the movie (Sophie) and the book series (locket) were inspiration for this chapter. I like the idea that Pitch had been a father. There's something adorable about it, in a way, and therefore entertaining to put him in this predicament.

I decided to post the fluffy chapter first, even if it isn't entirely humorous, because I really like it. I know I've read some stories with these characters in it, but hopefully this is different enough. The next chapter is going to be way more humorous (read: ridiculous). I'm not sure how often this will get updated, as it is more of a whim when ideas strike, but the next chapter will be up today.


	2. Disasters

Disclaimer: I own nothing from _Rise of the Guardians_ or related material.

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Summary: Pitch is displeased that everyone in the world appeared to be intent on interrupting his activities for the day.

Genre: Humor

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Something was very wrong, but Pitch found that he wasn't able to pinpoint the source that caused that feeling. The wrongness could be put aside for the time being, as the Nightmare King had much more pressing matters to attend to. Like trying not to break his neck while he was hurtling down one of the accursed rabbit's tunnels. This normally wouldn't have fazed him had the rest of his day not been so far from the norm of what Pitch would normally attribute to an ordinary day.

It had all begun earlier that morning.

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Pitch was highly displeased that his evil scheming in the morning had been disrupted when several natural disasters had occurred nearly simultaneously across the world.

Pitch glanced up unseeingly to the dark ceiling of his home, drawn out of his thoughts as the disasters caused the inhabitants of those places affected to loudly broadcast their fears. While Pitch enjoyed the sudden rush of fear, he couldn't quite enjoy it fully because of the interruption to his scheming that was to take place from 9 am to 10 am exactly.

Pitch turned to a nearby Nightmare with a harassed look on his face, "Really, why can't people have to decency to wait until I'm ready for them to become fearful?"

The Nightmare tossed its head with a snorting sound of indifference.

Pitch scowled darkly at the creature, before turning back to his scheming while at the same time trying to enjoy the abundance of fear he could sense.

The fear died down after awhile, and Pitch was able to fully focus on scheming, when he was again interrupted at 10:30 am. At this point in time he had been really getting into his pity fest that had started immediately after his scheming had wrapped up. Pitch sighed heavily at the new source of fear cropping up. Toothiana was being fearful for some of her little fairy workers. With another heavy, unimpressed sigh, Pitch slipped through a nearby shadow.

When Pitch emerged from the shadows, he took in the scene quietly. Ah, a tornado had come through and partially demolished some homes, and apparently a few Baby Tooth fairies had gotten trapped in the rubble. How tiresome. This was what had dragged him from his bout of feeling sorry for himself? Ignoring Tooth's defensive stance completely, Pitch called on the shadows, and soon five Baby Teeth came tumbling out of the shadows to land on the ground near Tooth, all of the tiny fairies chirping in alarm. As an afterthought, Pitch pulled one teen and his parents, as well as a few children, out from beneath the rubble as well, and dumped them out of the shadows before a rescue dog and his startled handler at the sudden appearance of those they were searching for. Pitch gave the tornado damaged scenery one final look, before he slunk back through a shadow to go finish pitying himself. He missed the look of incredulous surprise on Tooth's face.

That afternoon, once he had finished feeling sorry for himself, Pitch went to pacing around his lair, brooding. He knew that he shouldn't have been surprised that he would be interrupted once again. This time it was a freak blizzard, which Pitch suspected was entirely Jack's fault. Two hikers had inconveniently gotten trapped on the mountainside. Pitch could sense that they were afraid that they wouldn't be able to find shelter before help found them. Pitch made a strangled sound of displeasure in the back of his throat. He should really just let the humans freeze to death for being so rude as to interrupt his brooding. Pitch had only had 15 more minutes to go after all.

Grumbling to himself about irresponsible winter spirits, the Nightmare King stalked off into the surrounding darkness. Really. What had possessed Jack to do such a thing? Pitch supposed it was too much to hope that Jack had changed his mind about joining him. No, it was more likely that Jack hadn't noticed the two hikers. Pitch sighed heavily, hoping the exhalation of air from his person wasn't going to become a habit, as he emerged onto the mountainside near where the hikers were. He was buffeted by a strong cold breeze, and the Nightmare King despaired about getting snow in his hair as he approached a pathetically tiny fire that the two hikers were huddled around. Pitch halted when he realized that the hikers, a young couple, were watching his every move. That was odd. Most adults never saw him, but even the fact that someone could see him didn't please him as much as it should have, because Pitch was still upset that his brooding had been so rudely interrupted.

The young couple immediately fell into a whispered argument as Pitch observed them in silence, trying not to fall over from the gusts of wind. It wouldn't be very scary if he stumbled, and Pitch didn't want to suddenly become comical.

"No people in miles, Barry? Wasn't that what you said?" The female hiker accused her companion, though at the same time she cast a nervous look at Pitch.

Pitch offered a razor thin smile, pleased when the woman leaned up against the other hiker in fear. Barry, the male hiker, apparently didn't find Pitch's smile to be intimidating, but that could have just been because he had turned to the woman to respond to her accusation.

"Hun, no on lives in these mountains. You didn't see any cabins, did you?" Barry finally noticed Pitch's expression, but it didn't seem to bother him as much as it did his companion.

"Don't 'hun' me, you liar. Why is he here then?" The young woman pointed at Pitch, glaring at Barry as if demanding him to explain the tall figure's sudden appearance.

Barry grinned cheerfully as he attempted to console the woman, "Maybe we died, Heather, and he's come to whisk our souls away."

It was the wrong thing to say, as that comment caused the woman, Heather, to thoroughly chew Barry out, and make it clear to him that neither his comment nor his sense of humor was appreciated.

As amusing as Pitch found it to be mistaken for a spirit of the afterlife, he was still irritated that his brooding had been interrupted by this bickering couple. Plus their fear had all but diminished as they had apparently deemed him nonthreatening in comparison to the cold weather. Pitch began to smile wickedly. That would soon be remedied. He was going to get something out of this. Pitch reveled in the shriek of fright Heather gave as shadows began to surround her and Barry, cutting their argument short.

Barry seemed fascinated by the sight, and joked, "This is it, huh?"

"Shut up! What is wrong with you?" Heather nearly screamed in frustration, before she clung to Barry in terror as the shadows enveloped them and took them away, where Pitch had them roll out of the shadows near the cabins at the foot of the mountain. At least the Nightmare King missed the next thing that happened between the couple.

Barry had been silent for a few moments with Heather wrapped in his arms. When Barry realized that the danger was gone, he slowly let go of Heather. He glanced around to confirm that they were somehow safe and near civilization, before turning back to his girlfriend of four years. Barry smiled reassuringly at her, "It looks like we're still alive." A pause, then, "Marry me?"

Hysterical laughter was Heather's first response, before she said yes. However, she made sure to get Barry to promise that hiking wouldn't be a part of their honeymoon.

Three sets of eyes watched the couple kiss and make up. The eyes turned to look at one another.

"I told you that Pitch was acting strange." Tooth stated.

"That's so weird, but, you know, he is usually odd anyway." Jack agreed.

"Let's go talk to North and Sandy. I have an idea." Bunnymund added.

X-x-x

Pitch finally had no interruptions in the evening, which was a relief and improved his mood substantially. At night, he started to doze off. Doing good deeds rather tired him out.

In retrospect, it hadn't been a good idea to try and get a nap in, because that was when Bunnymund's tunnel opened up beneath Pitch. Tumbling to his death seemed a terrible way to go.

Pitch survived somehow, and ended up in North's home.

Things went downhill from there.

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Pitch woke abruptly, and saw that he was still in his lair. Pitch ran a hand through his hair absently, wearing a frown. What was that? He hadn't actually given himself a nightmare, had he, after dealing with that couple on the mountain? The thought was lost as he turned sharply about after spotting a golden color out of the corner of his eye. The Sandman was floating a few feet away, and Pitch was rather irked when the little man gave him a cheerful wave.

Pitch opted to stare at the other in fascination. "I didn't realize you could create nightmares. Perhaps that arrow of mine that struck you had an effect after all?" Pitch queried sardonically, a bit amused when Sandy puffed up at the very idea. Pitch shook his head and smiled thinly, "You can't really expect me to believe that that wasn't a nightmare. Do you?"

There was a brisk nod from the silent Guardian.

Pitch spluttered indignantly in return, "There is no way that I would have wanted to have a dream where I'd join you Guardians. That is most definitely a nightmare."

Sandy shrugged and waved a hand dismissively, as if to say that he hadn't given Pitch a specific dream, and whatever it had been had been entirely up to Pitch's mind.

This unspoken response caused Pitch to be horrified at his own subconscious and its dastardly betrayal. Why would he want anything to do with the Guardians, after all they had done to him? Pitch left through a nearby shadow, deciding that all he needed to do was go and clear his mind. Maybe he shouldn't have wallowed in despair for so long, because clearly it was something he had done that caused his mind to rebel and think about hanging out with the Guardians. Pitch ignored numerous spikes of fear, as his own predicament was far more important than a volcano exploding and endangering the lives of thousands. Pitch emerged into a forest, debating how best to go about curing himself of the sudden need for company from his enemies, when a voice hailed him from the surrounding trees.

"Hey, Pitch!"

Pitch's lips pursed at the cheerful lilt in Jack's voice. It sounded like the winter spirit was up to something, and that was never good for him.

"Found him Jack?"

"Yep, in all his gloomy glory," Jack responded, leaning on his staff.

Pitch started when North's sleigh flew overhead, and at the sight of Bunnymund leaping up out of the ground. Pitch's stomach dropped. No, his dreams were not going to happen while he was awake. Pitch wouldn't allow it, and he was going to make it difficult for the Guardians to do anything to him.

The Guardians watched in utter surprise as Pitch dropped to the ground with dramatic flair, and eyed them all warily, like he was excepting an imminent attack of some sort.

Jack was puzzled by this behavior. He and the others hadn't even spoken nor done anything yet. Pitch was defiantly acting stranger than normal.

Sandy came floating into the area.

"Ah, Sandy, so you found Pitch. He didn't cause trouble, did he?" North questioned curiously.

Sandy exchanged looks with a now glowering Pitch, before turning to North with a smile and a shake of his head.

Pitch grumbled something incoherent and lay limply on the ground, hoping the Guardians would put him out of his misery.

The volcano disaster, however, drew North and Bunnymund away to help, before anything could be said. This left Sandy, Jack and Tooth to deal with a despairing Pitch.

Pitch completely ignored Jack, Sandy and Tooth, mumbling to himself things along the lines of "there's something wrong with me." What exactly was wrong, Pitch wouldn't elaborate to the nearby Guardians. A snowball to his head cleared the Nightmare King's mind temporarily, and it caused Pitch to forget his troubles for the moment. He set upon Jack in an attempt to strangle the grinning winter spirit as Tooth and Sandy looked on in alarm.

Pitch just really wasn't in the mood to be around cheerful beings.

X-x-x

Across the country, hundreds of miles away, Heather the hiker was starting to regret her decision of saying yes to marriage.

After their incident with Pitch in the snowy mountains, Barry had been insisting that they get married near a cemetery.

Despite Heather's protests, Barry managed to convince her to agree to it, as long as he allowed her to choose their honeymoon destination. Barry had agreed readily, and the couple got married a few months later near a cemetery on Halloween evening.

Pitch hadn't planned on showing up at all, but he had sensed fear coming off of Heather, and decided to amuse himself that night. Pitch witnessed the proceedings with boredom, making no move until after Heather and Barry kissed. Then he struck.

The sight of Pitch and his Nightmares terrified the guests that could see them, while Barry was absolutely delighted. Heather was horrified that Pitch had shown up after all, as she had been hoping that she had been hallucinating.

Pitch decided that it was the young couple's own fault for choosing Halloween night, when people almost expected something terrifying to come leaping out at them from the shadows. Pitch was a bit frustrated that while Heather was completely afraid of the spectacle, Barry was acting like the Nightmare King was the coolest person he had ever seen.

"This is the best wedding ever." Barry stated with a boyish grin.

X-x-x

I am in the mood for typing and editing today apparently. I could have had Jack go help deal with the volcano, I suppose, but I don't think he would have liked the heat.

I'm sure the majority of the chapters for this are going to have Pitch or Jack in them, as I'm the most comfortable with writing them. I doubt I'll use ocs often, but in the case of this chapter, I thought it made it a little more funny.


	3. Unwanted Company

Disclaimer: See 1st chapter

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Characters: Jack, Pitch and Baby Tooth. Genre: Humor and friendship.

Summary: Pitch is displeased with Jack Frost continually appearing in his home unannounced.

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In retrospect, it probably hadn't been Jack's best idea to intrude upon Pitch's underground home without even letting its owner know about his intentions. Especially now that Jack was currently hanging upside down with black sand tightened around his limbs, holding him in place, and being treated to a glare from a very displeased Pitch. Since the Nightmare King appeared to be considering what to do with him, Jack didn't dare try a cheeky quip about bondage because that probably wouldn't be well received right now, nor appreciated.

And just how had Jack gotten himself into this? It had started a few hours earlier, when the winter spirit had thought, while passing over the forest in Burgess, that it couldn't be very good for someone (Pitch) to be all alone and stinging from defeat, and having your own underlings turn on you. Who knew what kind of dark thoughts would be running through the Nightmare King's head after all that?

So that was when Jack had the brilliant idea to go and see what Pitch was up to these days.

X-x-x

Jack arrived in the forest where he had found the entrance to Pitch's home before, and snooped around, before he spotted a hole in the ground that hadn't been there a few days earlier. An invitation or a trap? Jack hesitated as he considered the implications of the newly visible entrance. Jack did feel a little bad for Pitch; after all, he was likely to be lonely again, and Jack knew what that felt like. Pitch's offer had sounded interesting, but Jack knew that Pitch had been grasping at straws when he had brought up the offer, and Jack had known without a doubt that he wouldn't have enjoyed being believed in if it were caused through fear. Jack shook his head. In any case, he knew what it felt like to be ignored, and it was a terrible feeling.

Jack, mind made up, was about to drop down into the hole, when a tiny green blur appeared in front of him. Jack blinked in surprise as he realized it was a Baby Tooth, likely the one that had taken to following him around, "Hey, Baby Tooth. Did something happen?"

Baby Tooth shook her tiny head and flew around Jack's head, cheeping in an upset way. Before Jack could say anything else, Baby Tooth gripped his hoodie with dainty hands and tugged it, trying to get him to go in the opposite direction, away from Pitch's lair's entrance.

A brief smile lit Jack's face, "Ah, it's okay Baby Tooth. Pitch can't hurt me in the shape he's in."

Baby Tooth was adamant, as her fluttering increased as she tugged. She chirped several long strings of indecipherable language, clearly not agreeing with Jack's assessment of Pitch's character.

Jack gently freed his hood from Baby Tooth's grasp, his staff resting against his shoulder as he stepped toward the hole.

This upset Baby Tooth even more and she flew around Jack's head in distress, her cheeping increasing in volume.

Jack's hand closed around the tiny fairy lightly, the cold of his touch causing her to cease chirping immediately, and shiver. Jack opened his palm and offered an apologetic smile at the hurt expression on his little friend's face, "Sorry Baby Tooth, but I don't want Pitch to know I'm coming. If there's a problem, I can leave just fine. If visiting Pitch bothers you, maybe you should stay out here." Jack laughed as Baby Tooth puffed up indignantly and plastered herself in the side of Jack's hoodie, giving Jack a single, disapproving peep. Jack smiled a little more, "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Jack dropped down the hole and landed lightly, glancing around the dark lair, his staff held up defensively. When no stray Nightmares or Pitch himself showed, Jack felt a little bolder and went further into the dark cavern underground. It was a little unnerving for it to be so quiet, when last he had been here there had been countless Baby Tooth Fairies fluttering around in cages and cheeping in alarm. Jack felt Baby Tooth huddle down deeper in his hood, and his grip tightened on his staff. Maybe it wasn't the best idea after all to come down here without telling any of the other Guardians of his plans. Though, Jack considered, as he glanced around the gloom, the other Guardians would have likely advised against him doing this.

Jack paused next to the globe that Pitch had apparently decided to keep, and was pleased to see so many lights, proud of the fact that it was belief in him as well as the rest of the Guardians.

Jack heard a faint, distressed peep from Baby Tooth, and that was all the warning he had before a strong hand fisted into the back of his hoodie and yanked him up off his feet. Startled, Jack swung his staff blindly, fear leaping in his throat as the staff stopped short and pulled roughly from his grasp.

Baby Tooth had moved moments earlier from the hood to the pocket at Jack's waist, her muted cheeps of fear sounding constantly now.

"Silence that feathered nuisance before I do." The highly exasperated voice of Pitch sounded from behind.

Jack dropped a hand over the pocket Baby Tooth had secluded herself in, and stroked her head through the fabric, "Shh, Baby Tooth. It's okay."

There was a snort of derision from Pitch, clearly not thinking that was the case. The grasp tightened on his hoodie, and as Jack dangled a few inches from the ground, Pitch growled in a soft whisper, "Is there any particular reason for you to be here? I could have sworn you made it quite clear from your refusal of my offer that we were enemies. Or did I misinterpret things?"

"Well, I figured you were lonely, so I decided to stop by and make sure that you weren't plotting world domination or something like that while I was at it." Jack was taken aback when the hand let go of him, and Jack spun about, lunging for his staff.

Pitch stepped out of reach, and for the next few minutes it was a tense standoff between the two of them. Finally, Pitch spoke, as if he couldn't quite believe what Jack had said, "You intruded upon me in my home because you thought I might be lonely? That I'd want to see you? An enemy who helped bring about my downfall?"

Jack was anxiously watching his staff being waved around by Pitch, and managed to respond, "Well, yeah." Jack took a few steps back when Pitch started to laugh, a rather mocking sound, and tossed the staff to the winter spirit. Jack caught his staff, and the surprise on his face must have shown, because Pitch smiled faintly.

"Now, what was that look for? Did you think that I was going to break your precious staff?" Pitch spread his hands wide, "What's the point of it? It wouldn't do me any good to weaken you when I myself am weak. No, I'll leave it for another time when I can enjoy that fear." Pitch eyed Jack disdainfully, "Consider yourself lucky that you get a warning, Frost. Leave here. Return and I won't be so lenient."

Jack considered the other's words, and then smiled cheekily, "You are lonely, aren't you?" Jack dodged a thrown sand arrow, "Weak my ass, Pitch. You just don't feel up to fighting right now."

"Think what you will." Pitch gave Jack a cold stare, and was rather miffed that it had no effect on Jack. Pitch turned and stalked through a shadow. The Nightmare King felt like he was losing his touch, if he failed to intimidate Jack anymore. Pitch would come back in a few hours, and he would find the pale teen gone with the little fairy that had accompanied him.

Jack relaxed his stance when he realized that Pitch had taken his leave. The pale teen leaned on his staff in thought.

Baby Tooth, sensing that things had calmed down, emerged from Jack's pocket and moved back to his hood, and poked Jack with a tiny hand.

Jack flashed a bright smile at her, "See? Nothing to worry about." The look he received made him add, "At least nothing happened." Jack glanced around the lair, a thought coming to mind, "Hey, Baby Tooth, want to have some fun?"

The despairing cheep, while not in entire agreement, didn't exactly sound like a no.

Jack grinned as he scanned the area. This was going to be fun. Jack couldn't wait to see Pitch's face. It was going to be worth any potential fight his actions might bring in the future.

X-x-x

If Pitch had been hoping to return to a quiet home, he was sorely mistaken. Before he had even entered the main part of his lair, he could already hear Jack laughing and several excited peeping sounds in response. Dreading what he was going to find, Pitch emerged into the cavern with the globe, and it was all he could do to stop himself from gaping in utter shock. The damned winter spirit had transformed half the cavern into a mini ice theme park for a few Baby Teeth that had joined the single one Jack had brought with him.

There was what looked like a 50 foot ice ramp that allowed the little fairies to slide down at dizzying speeds, where they were then launched into the air. They would then catch themselves in the air and chirp in delight. Pitch's eyes flicked around to look at each of the other small structures. More slides of varying heights. What looked like a mini roller costar slide with loop de loops, and a large patch of ice that a few of the fairies were attempting to skate across. Pitch had seen enough when he spotted a fountain made of ice that actually had water in it for the fairies to drink from.

Jack caught sight of Pitch stalking toward him with murder in his eyes. Jack took a few cautionary steps back, staff clenched tightly in his hands, in case Pitch decided to lash out.

Pitch halted a few feet from Jack, and scowled at him, obviously not the least bit pleased with what the other had done to his home, "What part of 'leave' don't you understand, Frost?"

"I don't know, I just thought it would be fun."

Pitch stared at Jack wordlessly, clenching his hands at his side into fists. "Fun?" He nearly spat, "You thought that it would be fun to do this to my home when I specifically stated that you leave?"

Jack tapped the staff with his fingers, doubt taking place in his mind as he observed Pitch's body language. Perhaps the idea hadn't been one of his best, but Pitch's dumbfounded expression had been worth it. When he had to dodge a few sand projectiles, Jack guessed that Pitch wouldn't hold back retaliation for this. Jack leaned out of range as the projectiles turned into a scythe that Pitch had materialized out of nowhere. Jack narrowly avoided another swing. Okay, he hadn't thought things through this time around.

And just like that, Jack found himself in a pickle, held up by the black sand. His staff was in Pitch's hands again, and there was distressed peeping from the handful of Baby Teeth that were there, having fun forgotten when they saw the perilous position Jack was in. The look in Pitch's eyes caused the cheeping to grow in alarm.

Pitch swung a handful of black sand at the fairies. It missed, but it got the tiny creatures to quiet down a bit, and the Nightmare King turned his attention back to the winter spirit.

Pitch thumped the staff lightly on the ground, considering Jack silently as he decided what to do with him. Then it hit him. Pitch was going to have a little fun.

X-x-x

Jack avoided Pitch's lair for a few years after that, mainly because he hadn't thought that Pitch could have so much fun scaring the hell out of him. Pitch had tormented Jack by sending the fairies through shadows to different parts of the world, and Jack had had to go recuse a few of them. But first, Jack had had to get into a scuffle with Pitch to reclaim his staff, and that had been difficult due to Pitch's habit of slipping in and out of shadows with ease. Jack really hadn't appreciated having his staff waved at him just out of reach, and Pitch melding into a shadow with an infuriating smile on his lips as Jack would just miss grabbing it.

That, however, hadn't even been the bad part. After rescuing the last Baby Tooth from a sweltering desert, Jack, already weakened from the heat, hadn't seen a shadow growing beneath him until he fell through it. After having a realistic nightmare, that had been enough for Jack for a while. It was only after a couple of years had gone by that Jack had realized that, while the nightmare had been horrible, it hadn't actually happened, and Pitch had made no moves since then to try and cause trouble.

A mischievous smile split Jack's face as he flew off. Time for some payback.

Pitch was not at all happy when he found Jack wandering around his home once more, steadily freezing the place with ice and frost. Really, hadn't that brat learned anything from the last time? A snowball flew by the Nightmare King, missing his head by less than half an inch, which was Jack's way of saying that he could have nailed Pitch in the face if he had wanted to.

Apparently Jack_ hadn't_ learned anything from last time, so Pitch was going to have to remedy that.

Pitch slipped through a nearby shadow before he was pelted by a barrage of snowballs, and wondered just how long it would take for him to remove the now-grinning Jack Frost from the premises of his home this time.

X-x-x

I think I've already mentioned how much I love to write Pitch and Jack. I don't have any more chapters at the moment, but I'll probably try to have the other Guardians show up in some of them when ideas pop into my head.


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